- Hey Listen!

(upbeat music)

- Hello there everybody, my name's Tim,

and I am from Lessons on the Web dot com.

I'm here today to give you your ultimate

guide to getting started playing the piano.

(upbeat music)

So, who is this guide for?

Well this guide is for somebody who doesn't know

anything really, or maybe you were taught a long time ago,

and you just don't quite remember everything.

And you're just kinda overwhelmed at the

information that's out there and you just

want a good starting point, where to start.

Not just diving right in to note reading

and all that other advanced stuff.

Just, you know, how to get your hands on the piano.

How to figure out where a couple of notes are

and just a good place to start.

So in this guide we're gonna cover four major topics.

The first topic is the musical alphabet.

While the musical alphabet is incredibly easy to understand

it's very important because you have to know that you're

not going to playing any note Qs or Ss

or Zs, or any of that other stuff.

So you just have to know how that works,

and it will help with the next thing we are going to learn,

which is how to find notes on the keyboard.

So obviously you have to know where

a C is, where a D is, where an A is,

and just know that those notes

repeat up and down the keyboard.

So, I'll show you, we'll start with middle C

and then I'll show you how to find

notes from there, and some other tips

on how to find notes on the keyboard.

The third thing we're gonna learn about

are finger numbers of course.

Now this is another really easy thing to understand.

Like I said, I want this guide to not overwhelm you,

be a very simple starting place.

And finger numbers are just very important

in playing up and down the keyboard effectively.

Not the most exciting thing in the world.

Very easy to understand.

But, very important, nonetheless.

And then we're gonna finish out this guide

by playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

So, you'll go from, in this guide,

from playing nothing to

learning how to play a very simple song.

Now, we're not gonna use sheet music.

I'm not gonna show you any advanced

tips and tricks in this video.

I will in future videos of course.

But, these are just the basics today.

So we're gonna go from nothing to, you know, a little bit.

Now, obviously you're not gonna become a piano master

in 15 minutes by watching this video.

You know, realistically that doesn't happen.

But, if you're just looking for that

very good starting point, knowing nothing,

you've found the right place.

And one more thing I wanted to tell you about,

is that if you ever have any questions or comments

during the video, feel free to leave them in the comment

section and I'll do my best to get back to them.

But, let's not waste any more time.

Let's get to the piano.

Let's get started.

And let's start our new music education.

So, let's go.

Alright everybody, so time for our very first step.

Are you ready to get started?

'Cause I know I am.

Anyways, like I said, we're gonna learn

the musical alphabet first today.

And as I mentioned before, it's a very easy

thing to understand, but very, very important.

Not only in playing the piano and knowing

how the piano's laid out, but very important in

music and understanding how music works as well.

So, let's just get started in what the

musical alphabet is all about.

Well, one thing you want to know about

the musical alphabet is that it starts on A.

Wow, right.

And it goes from A to G and then repeats.

So, what that means is that the musical alphabet

will go A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G

and if it keeps going A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

You got it so far?

Well, there's a little bit more to it than that.

You also want to be able to say this alphabet backwards.

And I'll tell you more in depth in the next section,

but right now I'm just going to tell you

that you want to say it backward.

So, you wanna be able to say A, B, C, D, E, F, G.

Then you want to be able to say G, F, E, D, C, B, A.

And then keep going, G, F, E, D, C, B, A,

A, B, C, D, E, F, G going back forward.

So, you want to be fluent, I guess

you could say might be the word for that,

in saying the alphabet forwards and backwards.

I'll show you exactly why in a minute.

One of the things I wanna remind you to

use the content I wrote on Instructables dot come,

that guide there goes right along with this video.

It's basically like written documentation to the video.

Giving you a little bit more information

in written text format.

A great way to keep notes, and yeah,

so go there and check out the guide there.

But anyway, enough about the musical alphabet.

Real quick review.

It's from A to G and then it repeats and then

one thing you want to practice is saying it forwards,

and another thing you want to practice

is saying it backwards.

So, hopefully I haven't lost you so far.

Remember to leave any questions in the comments.

But, if you don't have any, let's

just move on to the next section.

Okay everybody, time for finding notes

on this magical thing we call the piano keyboard.

This is the board with the keys on it.

Make sense?

Well, we have to figure out how to find different

notes on this thing to be able to play it.

So, you may have noticed that the piano

is made up of a pattern of black keys,

and, purple keys.

No, no white keys, that's right.

Black keys and white keys, of course.

So, you may have noticed that there

is a pattern of the black keys.

Now, if you have a full-size piano,

the first black key will be all by it's lonesome.

You can't see it here, 'cause I don't

have the camera wide enough.

But you may be wondering if you have a full-size piano,

that the first one starts with a group of one.

It's just by itself, one black key by itself.

And then after that, they're grouped in groups of

two, three, two, and you can start to see my hand now,

three, two, three, two, three, two, three, two, three,

all the way up the keyboard.

So, the only exception to the two, three grouping

is if you have a full 88-key keyboard,

that first one's gonna be by itself.

And that's just because the piano

starts with A and ends with C.

And to begin on A, you have to have one black key there.

You'll know what I'm talking about in a minute.

But, let's just get right to the meat of the lesson, here.

Which is how to find notes here.

So, the groupings of twos and threes

is going to be used to our advantage.

'Cause we're going to use that to figure out where

we are on the keyboard and where these notes are.

Keep in mind that

when you find a note

(piano tone)

That note is the same (piano tone)

It's the same letter (piano tone)

no matter where, if it's on the

same position in the keyboard.

So, what I mean by that

is if you want to find the note C,

you find a group of two black keys,

(chord tone) here we go.

And you take your left black key,

and you go down and to the left by one

(piano tone) and that gives you C.

So, no matter where on the piano

(chord tones) that this group of two is here

(piano tone) you go to the left one

and down one, that's always going to be C.

So, you can always use your group of two

(staccato chord tones)

to figure out where C is. (piano tone)

Pretty easy.

But again if you have any questions,

leave them in the comments and

I'll do my best to get to them.

So, let's find another C, so what do you do?

Well, the first thing you do is you find a group two, right?

(low chord tones) Oh, here we go.

Group of two, perfect.

Go to that left one, down and to the left

(low piano tone) by one.

That's a C, so that's C everywhere on the piano.

And for your information, this one right in the middle

(mid piano tone) is called middle C.

Chances are you have a maker, or like

a maker's mark of your piano, or if you have

a keyboard, you may have an LCD screen

or some buttons here right in the middle.

And the C closest to where you sit,

chances are that's going to be middle C.

But anyways, there's another way to

figure out where the rest of these notes are.

So, the first thing to do is to find C.

Well, we know how to do that,

(mid piano tone) right?

And then be able to count forwards and backwards

on the alphabet to figure out where these notes are.

So, what I mean by that is that the very next white key,

(mid piano tone) is D

because D comes after C in the alphabet.

So, if you're going this way, you're

going forward in the alphabet,

If you're going that way, you're

going backwards in the alphabet.

Now, you probably know why I told you to learn

the musical alphabet backwards.

But, anyways, you start with C (mid C piano tone)

and then you to to the next one's

(mid D piano tone) D

(mid E piano tone) E

(mid F piano tone) F

(mid G piano tone) G

(mid A piano tone) H, right?

No, that one isn't H.

That one is going to be A.

'Cause remember that the musical alphabet

starts at A (ascending musical scale)

Goes to G (mid G piano tone)

And then repeats. (mid A piano tone)

Now, let me get to why you wanna

know the alphabet backwards.

Well, you wanna start with C. (mid C piano tone)

And instead of, if you want figure out this note,

instead of counting all the way up here again,

which would take too much time,

you count backward.

(mid C piano tone) So we have C.

What's before C in the alphabet?

Well, B, right? (low B piano tone)

What's before B?

Well of course A. (low A piano tone)

What before A? Z right?

This is note Z right? (low G piano tone)

No, not note Z, note G.

So, keep in mind that before A

in the musical alphabet is G.

Not in the alphabet that most of us know.

So, you have

C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C (descending scale)